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June 11, 2009

G60: Red Sox 4, Yankees 3

You never truly know with any given pitching match-up what kind of game you'll see.

Penny (6-6-0-1-5, 117) allowed five of his eight baserunners to reach second, but he threw six shutout innings. Manny Delcarmen allowed three runs in the seventh -- the first runs he had allowed to the Yankees in 16+ innings dating back to September 2006 -- but Takashi Saito got MDC out of further trouble and cruised through the eighth.

And when Girardi sent Sabathia out in the rain for the home eighth with a 3-1 lead, the big lefty could not record even a single out. The first three batters reached base and all of them scored -- as Boston batted around and pinned a big ol' "L" on CC's shirt.

Nick Green whacked a high changeup into left field, Dustin Pedroia worked a 10-pitch walk and J.D. Drew grounded an RBI single into center. Alfredo Aceves relieved CC. After taking a borderline pitch for a full count, Kevin Youkilis dropped a single into short right field to load the bases. Jason Bay lined the first pitch he saw into left field, FY scored and the game was tied. And there were still no outs!

Mike Lowell lifted a fly ball to left center. Brett Gardner called off Johnny Damon and uncorked a noodlesque throw that rolled into the infield. Drew scored easily and Boston had retaken the lead. Phil Coke came in and walked David Ortiz on four pitched to reload the sacks, but Jason Varitek fouled out to first and Rocco Baldelli struck out.

The top of the order could do nothing against Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth. Derek Jeter grounded to shortstop, Damon flied to left and Mark Teixeira lined to Yook at first. Nine pitches = save!

In addition to his single to kick off the eighth inning rally, Green made a great play on Jeter's grounder in the ninth. He ranged far to his left, turned a full 360 behind the bag and fired a bullet to first for the out. Also, back in the second, Green was the middle man on a 7-6-4 double play when Nick Swisher was caught off second when Francisco Cervelli flew out to deep left. (Anyone who thinks Julio Lugo makes either of those plays likely believes Sabathia is anorexic.)

Boston took a 1-0 lead in the second when Ortiz crushed Sabathia's first pitch over the Wall in left. It was his 4th dong of the year. Flo reached base in all four plate appearances tonight: Damon dropped his routine fly ball in the fourth, he singled in the seventh and walked in the eighth.

The Sox also threatened CC in the first, when Drew doubled with one out and Youkilis walked. Sabathia wriggled out of that jam and (outside of Tiz's HR) did not allow a Boston runner past first until Girardi tried to steal a few outs in the eighth.

That strategy failed miserably -- and the Red Sox attacked the MFY pen.

Boston is now 8-0 against the Yankees this season and are 2 GA of New York in the East. The rivals do not meet again until August 6-7-8-9 in the Bronx.

There's definitely still soreness. It's still really tender even doing non-baseball stuff. If I were to get out there and dive again, steal bases, that's where the possibility is of making it worse.

Jed Lowrie could return to the lineup before the end of the month. He is expected to begin a rehab assignment with Pawtucket on Monday and might rejoin the Red Sox in Atlanta on June 26. ... John Smoltz makes his final rehab start today for Pawtucket.

Jonathan Papelbon but unavailable for Tuesday's game because of food poisoning/dehydration, but was well enough to nail down the save last night:

I felt pretty good physically. I just had to take my time between each pitch. ... I was just breathing a little heavy. ... I was sick, but I was able to bounce back and come help the ballclub.

desperate for Sabathia to win on Thursday night. He's about to face a Red Sox lineup that has the best on-base percentage in the American League, a blend of power and speed and baseball smarts that's still a generation ahead of the Yankees.

Iam personally glad we don't see the Sox again until August....as a Yankees fan, I don't know why we can't beat them, but I hope that by the time Aug rolls around, A.J. learns how to pitch under pressure, and Wang is long gone. Nevertheless....we'll see what happens tonight....

That's certainly something the Yankees have going for them, B.R. - a long vacation from the Red Sox. There are a lot of games between now and then. They'll walk in cocky say oh we're a new team now, we're a well-oiled machine and we're clicking on all cylinders. But then Josh Beckett or Jon Lester will be standing out on the mound. Strike one. One-two-three first inning. 30 pitches from A.J. Burnett in the bottom of the 1st, and the Yankees will be thinking, "Here we go again."

Say we're able to sweep the Yankees (not likely given the pitching matchup tonight). If I were a Yankee fan like B.R., I would try not to read too much into it. The Yanks have had a lot of good things going on in a lot of different categories (I just read Heyman saying the whole starting infield lineup has only 8 errors). Two games out of first place, with the kind of hitting and defense they've been doing? Jeter and Damon doing well when they could have fallen off so badly? Not a bad situation.

It's fun as a Sox fan to be beating the Yankees regularly this season, but there's no psychological factor going on on the field that's making it so. We just have happened to be able to win 'em all.

Smoltz's start postponed, will he make one tomorrow? Don't know, but this is possibly the last game that Penny starts for the Sox this year, let us hope it is a good start that amps his trade value to the stratosphere.

MFY's need to go down.

1) dinnercheck2) It is Rum and Cokes tonight as this teetotaler goes for three in a row!!!

S1C, sounds good. Is it a place you get to each weekend? We leave for the Cape tomorrow and will be living in our cottage until mid-August while our new place is under construction. I can't wait! Two cats, a dog, two adults, two computers, a printer, scanner, and other stuff---all in 500 square feet.

L-girl its a matter of 2 furlough days taking a bite out of the pay check plus having to come up with additional money to get the Mom mobile back on the road, plus going from a short commute to a large commute, in other words the financial picture went from safe to fragging kidding me in a matter of days.

Amy - the lake house is part of BH's family and gets used by everybody (10 MFY fans, 10 Sox fans) and this year do to major job changes in 3 of the 5 families is basically where everyone will be escaping from the rat races (good thing we all like each other).

Plus this year the Virginia family is coming after the 4th and not leaving until mid august so, now is the time to really enjoy only the 7 of us who do most of the work around there.

At least you have savings. We spend it before we can save it. And then we borrow. But we always call it "responsible borrowing." When we sold our house recently and had so little equity in it, we rationalized that we had used that equity to send two kids to college and to pay for a wedding, etc.

Amy, you're telling me you have no savings, no pension? That's hard to believe. You owned a home that you sold, so you had equity from that. We will never own a home, and we have no pension except our own savings.

Yeah, its a definite no, (BH and I) have been spending days going over everything but with the college fund losing a good portion of money, the 500 here and 500 there for this n that for Marist along with all the crap that came down in the last two weeks it is literally hold everything until September for extra money.

Well, my perception is that Pink Floyd are still doing quite well with 20+ people. There's plenty of 90's music I'd consider more "old farty" than them. But then again, about half my music is from the 70s, so maybe I'm not objective...

Ah, S1C, that answers my question from last night (not sure you saw it). I was concerned about why two games in a row you said you were emptying the liquor cabinet.

Hang in there. I do believe things will eventually get better. Have you called Marist about the change in your job circumstances? Colleges can be pretty good about those things, though these days even they are pinched.

The borrowing issue is one of the reasons I took so long to go to school. My parents told us when we were in high school that um, yeah. We don't have any money saved for you to go to college.

I never really entertained the thought of taking out massive student loans but it's taken until now to realize how I just have to grin and bear it. I still want to continue to live a life that is low on borrowing.

Red Sock - trust me, I won't have to buy liquor if I get drunk every night for a month. #1 gift recieved for years in this family has been liquor, I empty one cabinet and just go to the basement and bring up another case or bottle.

LOL - of course what really pisses me off, if my boss was six weeks older, I probably wouldn't have to make any changes plus would be getting a raise, but no he's six weeks shy of taking the early retirement.